Inhale
by go-sandy
Summary: Ryan needs a cigarette. Summer has one. Yet, there's still a lesson to be learned. Rymmer implied [One Shot]


Taking a deep breath was all Ryan needed to do at the moment. It had been so crammed inside the Cohen's residence, that he hadn't been able to get enough supply of oxygen. Not to mention the fact that Marissa's eyes were fixed on Luke as if there was something between them that had never died.

He felt around his tuxedo pockets in search for his pack of Marlboros, when he remembered handing them to Marissa earlier that day so she could keep them in her purse. Sighing, he kicked the grassy ground and threw his head back.

"Tough night, huh?" a voice said from behind him. He turned around to face Summer, and slowly a smile spread across his face, wiping away his distressed frown. "What're you doing out here?" she asked, hugging herself tightly. "It's a freezing night."

"I needed some air," Ryan explained. "I thought I'd come out here, take a smoke, but I forgot my pack with Marissa." He turned his eyes to the large door window of the Cohen's living room, revealing Marissa––her hand entwined with Luke's––as they conversed and laughed away at something one of them had said. He felt his stomach churn at the sight.

"Yeah, Marissa looks a bit busy in there," Summer stated, as though reading his mind. She dug through her purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She handed it to Ryan. "Here," she offered; a sympathetic smile on her face.

Ryan looked down unsurely at the pack and back at Summer. Taking it from her, he looked up. He popped open the pack and wedged a cigarette between his lips. "You smoke?" he asked; his voice muffled from behind the cigarette.

Summer sighed. "Let's just say, I was addicted to gum, and it was my only escape."

Ryan looked at her from the corner of his eyes, and realizing she was serious, he chuckled. "That's… refreshing," he mocked, a lopsided grin plastered on his face. Lighting the cigarette, he shut his eyes and tilted his head back. Placing it between his lips, he drew in an extended drag, and to Summer, it felt like eternal silence as he inhaled that long breath of smoke, but finally, he blew it out with a sigh.

"Wow," Summer exclaimed under her breath, bringing Ryan back to reality. He furrowed his eyebrows and questioned her with his eyes. She shrugged and laughed, dropping her head. "It's just," she began, looking back at him. "I've always wanted to do that."

"Do what?"

"Like, _really_ enjoy a cigarette. I smoke, yes, but it just doesn't feel _right_. I don't get that, _high_." She looked at him and saw the small smirk forming on his lips. She dug her head into her hands and let out a stifled laugh. "Oh my God, how stupid do I sound?"

Ryan's small smirk spread in to a full-blown one. But when Summer removed her hands from her face, and he saw that spark flickering in her eyes, his smile faded. Removing the cigarette from his lips, he stepped closer to her, reaching his hand out. "Come here."

Summer looked up at him with reluctant eyes, but she knew that he had her from hello. She linked her hand with his, stepping up to him. Her cheeks were growing hot and pink faster than she could say 'stop'; she tried to conceal it by looking away, but Ryan brought her face up to his with his finger. He made sure that her eyes were locked on his, and he could tell she felt the lack of oxygen between them, because her lips had parted and her breaths were coming out thin and soft.

"Are you all right?" he asked. "Comfortable?"

Summer nodded as she closed her lips and tried to wet her dry throat by swallowing, but it hardly helped. "Yeah." Her voice came out squeaky and broken, making them both snort silent laughs. But the silence returned almost abruptly, before any of their minds could drift off into thoughts.

"What… makes you angry?" Ryan asked quietly, looking at each of her eyes, studying them thoroughly. The first thing he made note of was the black dot on her hazel brown iris in her left eye, and he couldn't help but stare into it, as if he would see something deeper behind it.

"Um," she began saying, and broke eye contact, but Ryan instantly brought her face back up to his.

"Don't think," he uttered in a low breath.

Summer nodded, trying to keep her eyes on his. "When I try to… tell my Dad things, but he doesn't take me seriously."

Ryan nodded, reassuring her that her answer was leading her to the right path. "Okay," he muttered. "What makes you sad?"

Summer bit on her bottom lip, circling his ocean blue irises with her eyes, almost sinking into them. She looked down at his lips, noticing that they were parted, in such a sensual way. Like he was ready to kiss her… "That I'm 24, and… a-and I still don't know who I am and what I want."

He nodded once again, this time bringing his body a quarter of an inch closer to hers. He took a few moments to breathe, and he tipped the bottom of the cigarette in his hand, making the ashes fall to the ground, but all the while, he focused on her eyes. "What makes you empty?"

"Empty?"

"Don't think."

She drew in a short breath, and releasing it, she murmured, "The fact that I don't know what love is anymore."

Ryan's hand slithered over hers, gripping it loosely, but his touch still sent an army of goose bumps cascading over Summer's sensitive skin. She shut her eyes, and for once Ryan let her break eye contact. But she could still feel him, his breath going into her every time she inhaled, and it made her feel connected to him, if only by a thin line of air.

"What makes you feel all of it…?" he asked, and then quickly rephrased, "What makes you confused?"

Summer shook her head, and her eyes squeezed shut, she breathed, "_This_."

And with that, Ryan raised the cigarette in his hand to her mouth, pressing it in-between her lips softly. He bit on his bottom lip and watched as her jaw flinched slightly at his touch. Her hand still linked with his, Ryan hauled it gingerly to her face, and wrapped her fingers one-by-one around the thin cigarette. Bringing his lips to her ear, his breath tickling her skin, making her head tilt back, he murmured gently, "_Inhale._"


End file.
